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Fifteen years after its first publication, The Second Shift remains just as important and relevant today as it did then. As the majority of women entered the workforce, sociologist and Berkeley professor Arlie Hochschild was one of the first to talk about what really happens in dual-career households. Many people were amazed to find that women still did the majority of childcare and housework even though they also worked outside the home. Now, in this updated edition with a new introduction from the author, we discover how much things have, or have not, changed for women today.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Originally published in 1989, this book is more relevant today than it was 20 years ago. The author, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild from the University of California, compiled data about the working and household chore habits of modern two-career couples. In 17 chapters the author gives historical and individual context to what she calls "the stalled revolution" of women leaving the role of full-time housewives to become salaried workers outside the home, and compares it to the process of men leaving the family farm to look for salaried work in the factories during the height of the industrial age 200 years ago.

Opposite men who still had a wife back home to cushion the sudden change into industrialization, most women who have traded the apron for the briefcase (for professional women) or the uniform (for women working in the service industries) have not had the advantage of having someone back home to cushion their aggressive entrance into the marketplace. Somehow they have had to make ends meet, sacrificing their marriage, their children or their job. Usually the marriage goes and the sudden rise in the divorce rate since women entered the marketplace in droves seems to be evidence of it.

The author discusses the inner workings of family life of eight particular working married couples with children, and how they cope with what has come to be known as the second shift, in which women are now expected to contribute to the financial life of the family by working outside the home while at the same time they are still expected to keep doing most or all of the household chores and to take primary responsibility of the day-to-day care of the children. The author estimates that all these responsibilities result in an extra month of work per year for women compared to men.Read more ›

In THE SECOND SHIFT: WORKING PARENTS AND THE REVOLUTION AT HOME, Arlie Hochschild holds up to the light this and many other strategies by which women and men in two-career marriages juggle work pressures and family needs. Between 1980 and 1988, Hochschild and her research associates interviewed fifty couples at great length. Hochschild also observed family life in a dozen homes. At the heart of her book are the stories of eleven couples. All but two are members of the middle and upper-middle class; each couple has made decisions and developed justifying myths a bit differently. Each has its own "economy of gratitude."

Hochschild is very much interested in the interrelationships between power--perceived and actual--and bonds of human caring. Her phrase "economy of gratitude" makes reference to what is given and received as gifts between spouses and how those gifts are valued. For example, if a woman earns more money than her husband, his male pride may suffer. His willingness to bear the affront may be viewed by both as a sacrificial gift, and out of guilt and gratitude she may assume most of the household responsibilities. Hochschild found many such contorted notions of what merits gratitude among the couples she studied.

As a college-age adult, I thought I would have little reason to read a study about the struggles of working women. That is wrong. I learned so much from reading this book. Learn more about family in this book.

I read the book when it first appeared. Its one drawback is that the information doesn't hold up academically, as by one reviewer. That said, I think this should be required reading by anyone who enters marriage and wants to have a family.

When I was reading the book, it had been front page news and my husband cowered in the shadows and took on more housework than normal. I quickly told him, that he is not like those make shirkers. And never was.

My husband and I had that conversation when we were engaged. He wanted a career wife and when I raised the issue about running a home and raising children his common sense was spot on. In my years, I have heard only two people who said that marriage is a team venture, and you are reading one of them. This is where is begins. Anyone who has a profession that is that demanding really should not have children. One can balance work and home but it begins with teamwork and compromises not to mention a sense of humor. I think reading this book is very useful as a trigger for young couples to really think about choices and the makeup of their partnership.

This book has been reissued with a new introduction to an old and important message. "A man may work from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done" is an adage older than any of us. Hochschild draws a bleak and accurate picture of the increasing number of women with two jobs. As the economy worsens, and as more women want to maintain their careers, this number grows. The number of men pitching in at home, Hochschild reminds us, has not grown. Women come home from work to a full set of responsibilities. Women take off for the sick child, the doctor's appointment, the school play.

Yes, some men stay home, and yes, some men do their fair share. But things cold get better. I'd like to see this as required reading in high school - let's see if we can create a new trend.